Book Review: Friday I’m In Love by Camryn Garret

‘Friday I’m In Love’ was released in 2023, and was Camryn Garret’s fourth novel. The book tells the story of Mahalia Harris, a sixteen year old girl, who, having missed out on her chance at a Sweet Sixteen, opts to celebrate her sexuality in a similar stead, declaring she will save up for, and host a coming out party, where she will share her sexuality with her peers.

This story is a fantastic, radiant expression of love and dedication, offering insightful glances into the influence of music on daily life, the struggles of being young and finding your feet in the working world, and of course, loving yourself. It also highlights important messages that ought to be amplified and echoed in academia; particularly institutional racism.

I feel like it is incredibly valuable for Garret to provide her readers with glimpses into two different classes Mahalia takes: English and History. While Mr Lewis, the English teacher, is reluctant to discuss racism, despite his curriculum being filled with books where the n-word is being used, and him declaring his children are called Atticus and Harper, Mahalia’s other teacher, Mr Willis is more laid-back. He has strict rules in his class, but values his students’ insights. The contrast in these educators, and their beliefs echoes the scope of educators, and their values that still creep into an institution. For example, although both Mr Lewis and Mr Willis offer their assistance to Mahalia during the story, they have different methods of doing so.

Mr Lewis holds several students back after school – Mahalia acknowledges that in this instance, the only students that are in this session, are POC, and Mr Lewis, insists they utilise their struggles and use them in their college essays. Meanwhile, Mr Willis praises Mahalia for her firm politics and strong essay for his class, written about the electoral college. He offers his opinion and insight without suggesting writing about her experiences being raised by a single mother, or their financial troubles. He encourages her because he wrote about the electoral college when applying to Berkley. At the end, it is his encouragement, which encouraged her to seek his validation on her college essay – not Mr Lewis, who she and her best friend Naomi, the only other black student in their English class, believe has a white saviour complex. I loved that Garret could be that scathing in the narrative.

Speaking of the scathing nature of the story, Garret’s use of voice was phenomenal. Her declaration that J K Rowling is transphobic, and that we ought to support trans rights, a passing comment from Naomi’s non-binary sibling, Cal. Brilliant. Quick. To-the-point. I absolutely adored Mahalia’s character and her narration, she was wry, witty and cut-throat, and Garret is able to share a lot of opinions through Mahalia or her friends’, like her opinions on Edward Cullen or how she compared Siobhan’s accent to Shrek, and subsequently was challenged to a duel. As a Brit, that exchange had me in stitches.

On the love story front, I wanted Mahalia to be happy, whether she was with Siobhan, or someone else, or nobody at all. Although, like many young adult, coming of age, coming out stories, the threat of being outed lingers, especially once Mahalia and Siobhan start dating, but, something I did like, was that although their secret was found out, the coming out was on Mahalia’s and Siobhan’s terms. They utilise the chaos from the attempt to out them, to change the direction of their classmates’ attention. Although it could be argued that this was a quick resolution to a problem that has been bubbling up, it was very in-keeping with the theme of musicality which thrums throughout the book. And for it to be Siobhan who starts the sing-along, not Mahalia, who is far more confident and self-assured when it comes to singing along to music, showed a lot of character development that left me absolutely beaming.

I enjoyed ‘Friday I’m In Love’, it dealt with hard-hitting topics like growing up too fast, imperfect parents, and the struggles to make ends meet to name a few. But, at its heart, this is a joyful love story. If nothing else, honestly, Garret’s humour and use of voice was enough to make me want to read more of her work. I’m looking forward to when I get the chance to do so.